Book Reviews featuring Romance of all Genres

Oh My Shelves welcomes author C.J. Anthony to the blog with her new release – Falling for Santa Claus releasing July 24, 2016 from Dreamspinner Press – and to share with us an excerpt from the book and… a giveaway! Don’t miss how to enter at the end of the blog post!

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Hi, I’m C. J. Anthony and I’d like to thank Oh My Shelves for hosting me today. I’m here to talk about my new novella with Dreamspinner Press coming out July 24th called Falling for Santa Claus…

*record scratching noise* Back up, wait…did I just say Santa Claus? But it’s July, you’re thinking. Santa Claus comes in December with all that cold and snow right? Not in July when it’s shorts and T-shirt weather and ice cream and sunshine and all the good stuff we look forward to all year, right? Well, yes, that’s true…but hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little Christmas in July!

This is the second stop on my blog tour. I hope you’ll prop your feet up, grab some ice cold lemonade or ice tea, turn that AC up to it’s coldest setting and blast it while you follow along. You’ll get to find out more about the story, why I wrote it and also a little side story about what Jack, Nick and the other residents of Great Falls are up to this summer. At the end of the tour, I’ll be choosing two winners from all the comments on all of the blogs (which means every time you comment on a different blog, you get another entry!) and they’ll receive a special Christmas in July gift from Santa himself. Blog links are listed below.

It’s been a four months since the ending of the book, let’s stop in at Mabel’s Diner and see what’s cooking in Great Falls…

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Mabel cursed at the shrill ring of the phone, wondering who in the world was calling her diner so early. She’d just opened and her only customers were the usual early-birds—Wilma, Beatrice and Connie, the three spinster McCoy sisters who always did their daily power walk around the town at 5 am sharp, followed by coffee and breakfast at Mabel’s. Then there was Herb, George and Stanley, three of the local farmers who gathered at Mabel’s every morning to discuss farming and solve the world’s problems while they were at it.

“Mabel’s Diner, this is Mabel. Make it snappy, I got home fries burnin’ on the grill.”

“Mabel. It’s Flo.” Flo was whispering as if the phone was being tapped.

“Mrs. Glassman had Nick over to fix her toilet and she said he was whistling. Whistling! And he gave her a smile when he left. A smile, Mabel!”

“Oh my God. Something secret is definitely going on with those two.”

“But why are they hiding?” Flo asked.

“I don’t know, but I think I know how we can get them out of the closet, so to speak. Flo, bring over the calendar and the books tonight. It’s time we start plans for the First Annual Great Falls Pride Parade!”

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Are Jack and Nick really having hot monkey sex? Check out Falling for Santa Claus to find out.

When Jack Frost’s aunt dies and leaves him her house in the tiny town of Great Falls, Jack seizes the opportunity to escape the rat race of Chicago for the quaint village he loved as a child. On his first night he’s welcomed by a baseball bat and a trespassing warning from Nick St. James—longtime Great Falls resident and infamous curmudgeon.

Jack wants to give Nick the benefit of the doubt—he can’t deny his attraction to the big man—but after several run-ins with Nick’s grumpiness and closed-off heart, he’s ready to give up. Only after discovering the secret Nick’s been covering up for years does he vow to break through Nick’s walls to find the loving man hiding behind them.

Don’t forget to comment (and leave a contact email) below for an entry to win a special Christmas gift!

And keep following the tour to find out what happens at the Great Falls Pride Parade.***

Follow the rest of the tour:

About C.J. Anthony

C. J. Anthony started reading and writing at an early age. She attributes her love of reading and romance to her mother who not only taught her to read but also made countless trips to the library lugging piles of books home for her to read. She loved getting lost in the people and places and adventures she found in books like the Little House on the Prairie series, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, just to name a few. It wasn’t a far jump to start writing her own stories, early childhood tales about flower families and travelling to the moon with her best friend.

Writing, however, quickly fell by the wayside as she grew up and turned to other creative pursuits. Recently she was inspired to try writing again, this time with beautiful men in love speaking to her and wanting their stories to be told. C. J. has always been a hopeless romantic, believing in true love and soul mates, and HEAs even if there is a little angst and pain along the way–life is never perfect, after all, but everyone deserves a happy ending and someone there to catch them when they fall.

When she’s not writing—or trying to find time to write—she spends most of her time juggling a day job and freelance design work on the side, enjoying music, movies, spending time with friends and, of course, reading.

Hah, finally read the whole extra short story. This was FUN. I enjoyed the novella too (and I immediately backtrack and bought “Heaven”) because I loved your writing. Congratulations for this and here’s to future stories from you